That's my mental couple of days at work over thank goodness - plenty happening on here since!

Carter - very positive tonight that you ran pain free! Did you ask the dog how his poor old knees felt?! And to answer your question I am going to aim for an even 8.30pace on Sunday .

Carl - you seem to back in the groove! I am keen to see how you get on as I too am going to work on my speed after Limerick.... would like to run sub 100mins at my next HM on 8th June!

Bruno - great to hear you intend to do Dublin... looks like we're going to have quite a party! Yes you are correct Big Norm retired relatively young (25 I think) and did retrain definitely as a podiatrist and I think he said also as a physio and went on to do his coaching badges. Can't remember him mention arthritis though?? Then again a waiter came to take a drinks order from me at one point during his speech so I may have missed that bit!

So that is my last session of my 18 week plan done - took your advice Spoons and ran an easy 3 miler this evening @ 9.14pace (HR slightly up - hope I'm not coming down with something) and intend to rest tomorrow & Saturday.... off to find Carl's list of "things to pack" now

Ricky - the dog had his cruciate ligament done at the end of last year so he has been on the treatment bench too ! If he reacts well to tonight's little jaunt he can come on some trail runs with me I forgot to mention that after my little run I did some hopping on one of the paths in the park. I got some weird looks and at one stage I had to tell one bloke that I wasn't mad !

Wow. Intervals are really hard work. Funny how you forget these things. Also it was much cooler out there tonight than you would think so just as well I made the right clothing option.

So I went out with the intention of doing 10 400m intervals. After 4 I was thinking that I was mad. But somehow I got through them. My wife wanted to know why I was walking a little gingerly when I came home !!!!

As the intervals went on, my recovery lap in between was getting a little slower.

My lap paces (min/mile) were as follows :

6:16; 6:24; 6:08; 6:16; 6:06; 5:58; 5:56; 5;52; 5:56; 5:52

This equates to 88 - 94 sec per 400m.

A couple of interesting things I noticed while sprinting these laps. I found my stride getting longer in some cases particularly on the first bend.. I tried concentrating on taking more steps per minute but found it very distracting and energy sapping. My watch recoded the same steps per minute for my slowest lap as for my fastest lap 98 spm / foot. I am pretty sure that my mid foot hits the ground first. I could not go much faster tham my fast laps. A really intense speedwork session the night after a tempo run is tough.

The good thing is that I am back out running after my marathon. It is much harder motivating myself to get back in the saddle so to speak and whilst work has not helped I think the size of the prize has got something to do with it. A marathon deserves great respect and you need the training. A 10k is not so demanding. I know I can easily finish it. I may not get a sub 45 time in this one as it is really a bit too close to the marathon. But I am not stressing about it. it will be a crowded course and it should be well spectated so it will be about enjoying it. If my mental frame of mind is good on the day, who knows what might happen.

That's very quick Carl. If you're sustaining sub 6 minute pace for 90s bursts then 7 minute pace is going to feel very easy by comparison.

10k racing is a whole different ballgame to marathons. If you're going for a time you have to basically hit pace straight away. OTOH if you go too hard and blow it then it's not the end of the world, you can race another a couple of weeks later.

Andrew - how long it there between the 2 marathons? I'm guessing about a month so the key is recovery. 2 weeks of recovery followed by 2 weeks of light training. You shouldn't need to do any long runs. Maybe one of around 13-14 miles at an easy pace half way between the 2.

Carter - sounds promising.....

Ricky - everything is going perfectly to plan....

Carl - awesome reps there well done. Sub 45 will be a breeze. For context - my GF did a 45 minute 10km last night on a tough, hilly course and she does her 400s at 6:30-6:45 pace. (yes I am her coach )

Hi Carl, I have found when performing interval trainng that I am pushing more from the front foot and adapting more of a pose method of running. My feet tend to spend more time in the air but that seems to be taken care of by the power I am producing from the push off. when I am running longer distances I am falling back into the high turnover of feet and falling more on the mid foot. That make sense?

I'm not very good at the carb loading - I would tend to have quite high carb content in my diet normally (I am the museli man morn & night ) so don't stress too much about it.

That said I have increased my intake a little since Wednesday - pot of pasta as an extra at lunchtime etc etc. Won't go too mad though as I don't want to upset the bathroom routines *ahem* if you know what I mean!

A gel on the startline and one every 45 mins plus 750ml of High5 4:1 drink to sip on the way round is the in-race fuelling strategy.

That's very quick Carl. If you're sustaining sub 6 minute pace for 90s bursts then 7 minute pace is going to feel very easy by comparison.

10k racing is a whole different ballgame to marathons. If you're going for a time you have to basically hit pace straight away. OTOH if you go too hard and blow it then it's not the end of the world, you can race another a couple of weeks later.

Dave - you are so right. I have run 10k's before but never really trained for them. I have not really thought about a race strategy but you are so right. Got to be out of the blocks fairly quick and try and hang on. If I can get 2 good weeks training in maybe the 7 min pace might come. This one might not be the one to do it as it is a fairly busy one. I am really pleased with those times from last night but I know that was far from easy.

It takes a bit of judgement: if you're struggling to maintain pace towards the end of the set then you're better off having a slightly longer recovery period than running them slower, in my view.

Just been reading back as this thread has been a little busy the last few days. I had wondered last night if I was cheating by taking more time on the recovery laps. But looks like I was just doing it right as it helped me maintain the pace even though the last 2 intervals last night were really hard but I kept telling myself that it was only anotehr 400m !

Ricky - I am with you on the carb loading. I am not a fan. I increased my intake for the few days before Paris but did not go mad. I have never tried a gel on the start line but have seen others do it. Do you think it really benefits ? I do struggle a little with gels and am thinking of adopting a different approach for my next marathon. No idea what it is yet but I am sure there are loads of ideas out there. It is about finding the one that is right for you.

I went through a phase of taking a gel on the startline but stopped because I never really noticed any difference. Others swear by it though. I tend to sip a bottle of sport drink on the way to the race, and whilst hanging about at the start. I'm no expert but I always figure a sport drink is just a watered down gel anyway!

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